8p9s Mailbag: Fitting in Glenn Robinson III and making Turner and Sabonis work

What is Domantas Sabonis’ ceiling?

I see Sabonis’ ceiling being similar to his fathers. While his father didn’t come to the league until the back end of his career, you always knew Arvydas was capable of getting you a double-double.

With that being said I fully expect the younger Sabonis to be 10-12 year NBA starting center and/or power forward, who is capable of averaging 15 and 10 on a nightly basis and who should be a centerpiece for the Pacers moving forward, EVEN WITH MYLES TURNER (read that again if you need to). To a lot of people that might sound outrageous, but too me its very realistic.

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Coming into the league we knew the scouting report on Sabonis. Elite rebounder,  good finisher around the rim, lacks NBA level athleticism but makes up for it with a very nice basketball IQ. Thus far, a year and a half into his NBA career, I think you can see all of those coming to fruition.

Sabonis has shown the ability to rebound at a high level,  play inside and outside, as well as pass at a high level, and as Jonathan Macri  of Hoops Habit pointed out last month, Sabonis is one of just six players in the league averaging 18 points, 11 rebounds and three assists per 36 minutes.

We got to see a glimpse of what Sabonis could do as a starting NBA center with Myles Turner missing nine straight games with an elbow injury. During that time Sabonis was able to average a stealth 13 points, 10 rebounds per game while shooting nearly 51% from the field.

This could be viewed one of two ways IMO. One, it’s a small sample size and it does not indicate anything in regards to the ceiling of Sabonis. Or two, this is just a glimpse of what the 21-year-old, second-year pro could do with more playing time and more opportunity.

I fully believe that Myles Turner and Domantas Sabonis can and should be a part of the Pacers long-term plans, as both bigs have promising futures ahead.

However, I fully understand the questions surrounding the fit of the two bigs playing together. The statistics show that the two side-by-side is not a great fit, or at least not how they are typically used.

As Jonathan Macri of Hoops Habit wrote,

"“The Pacers have tried playing Turner and Sabonis together with uninspiring results; the pair has a slightly negative net rating over 173 minutes sharing the floor. The Pacers would be wise to test out the pairing more over the rest of this season, but if it never clicks, there’s at least a question as to who’s the better fit moving forward.”"

That statistic isn’t necessarily a great thing to read, but Pacers fan should enjoy having two young big men who have bright futures in the league, instead of arguing over who is better or who should start, or even who should be traded away. For what it’s worth, there are a few lineup combinations with the two that work well but aren’t often used.

Next: Checking in on a few recent Pacers departures

This is a great problem to have, one that many other teams won’t ever experience.